Local Panera Bread Bakery Cafes recently announced their new community donation partner – The FoodBank of Monmouth and Ocean Counties. Through this newly formed partnership, the FoodBank will benefit from special programs in local Panera Bread Bakery Cafes such as Community Breadbox cash donations, Day-End Dough-Nation product donations and support for food bank programs.

Community Breadbox- Through the Community Breadbox program, Panera enables its customers to contribute to the well-being of their communities. For the past year, the FoodBank of Monmouth and Ocean Counties was the recipient of the breadbox donations made in participating cafes in Monmouth and Ocean Counties – $15,658.83

Day-End Dough-Nation- Panera Bread bakes fresh bread each evening in each bakery cafe. Any unsold bread and baked goods are donated to the local pantries and soup kitchens in Monmouth and Ocean Counties.

Participation in Special Programs- Panera Bread is dedicated to their relationship with the local food bank and will participate in programs throughout the year that benefit their hunger relief efforts such as: Culinary Training Program for people in need of better-paid jobs, a Kids Café and Backpack program for children, a Mobile Pantry, and Food Stamp Outreach Program. We will provide our customers, associates and communities with unique opportunities for community participation through volunteering and fundraising.

“Panera Bread is committed to supporting the communities that we serve. We look forward to creating the dialogue around food insecurity, educating our communities and being the leaders in the movement to fixing a broken food chain,” said Theresa Rivello, Regional Marketing Director of Panera Bread.